Kelly Ripa Co-Host: Could Non-Celeb Land A Permanent Spot On ‘Live’?

The Kelly Ripa co-host search continues for the ABC morning show Live! With Kelly, and recent news emerged that a Pennsylvania high school teacher is returning for more co-hosting duties! The non-celebrity co-host, Richard Curtis, is heading back to Live! With Kelly, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In November, after his second guest hosting effort, Curtis received a compliment from actress Sarah Jessica Parker, which Curtis called “the nicest compliment.”

“[It seemed like Curtis had] been secretly doing talk shows for the last 10 years,” Parker said about his co-hosting skills.

From an October YouTube post, Curtis seems to shine next to Ripa on the “bottle-flipping craze.”

This Kelly Ripa co-host video has garnered 68,874 views over the past couple of months. Most comments reflect a desire to see the high school teacher in the spot more permanently. However, one remark from another teacher, Florence Rose, regarding the craze is more amusing.

“Hahaha I am a teacher and have banned it from my classroom, because they used to try and do it randomly through the lesson. Then one bright spark tried to do it with a [1 liter] bottle of paint and it exploded EVERYWHERE!!”

So, who is Richard Curtis anyway?

According to the information on his LinkedIn page, Curtis is a teacher from Perkasie, Pennsylvania. He has worked in the Souderton Area High School system since November of 2009 and has a bachelor’s degree in educational/instructional technology from Millersville University of Pennsylvania.

Curtis recently took to social media and retweeted news about his November Kelly Ripa co-hosting gig opportunity.

Curtis will be Kelly Ripa’s co-host again on Monday, December 12, marking his third appearance on the show. Curtis will be in the chair next to Ripa until Wednesday, December 14. After that, Van Jones will take over, followed by Mark Consuelos, who is Kelly Ripa’s husband.

Jones may be best known to viewers as a commentator for CNN and not-so-much beyond that, but he is also a Yale-educated attorney and author of two books about his “journey as an environmental and human rights activist to becoming a White House policy advisor,” per the bio information posted at CNN.

FILE - Kelly Ripa. [Image by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Images, File]

Teasing the morning show drama further, Andy Cohen of Watch What Happens Live had as his own guests Ripa and Anderson Cooper of CNN.

The Kelly Ripa co-host gig was one topic pursued by Cohen.

“Anderson re-signed with CNN, but he would have been your No. 1 pick, right Kelly?”

Ripa answered that Cooper “keeps getting away.”

“[Cooper’s] my life. He really is. He’s the one that got away and keeps getting away and gets away all the time.”

From Instagram, Curtis seems to be a favorite with fans for the permanent position.

Remarks on the post highlight the affection fans of the show and the high school teacher feel, such as a comment from someone named mdf822 who posted this remark.

“Seriously, you’d be crazy not to bring him back!”

Or this one from a fan named aecrall_rebelrose, who has decided this about the high school teacher.

“He was amazing! Another Regis [Philbin] but so much better. Awesome role mod”